This blog is totally independent, unpaid and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.

Thursday, December 04, 2014

Review Of The Ongoing Post - Budget Controversy 04th December 2014. It Just Got Worse!

Budget Night was on Tuesday 13th May, 2014 and the fuss has still not settled by a long shot. Indeed some commentators are wondering out loud if the Abbot Government will last for a second term.

It is amazing how the discussion on the GP Co-Payment just runs and runs. Lots more this week with the Government seemingly in disarray and internal division.

Here are some of the more interesting articles I have spotted this 27th week since it was released.

Tony Abbott is still complaining just how hard it is being to make budget progress and reports of huge budget blowout also featured - said to now be $40B ++++.

All in all, right now most of the Government is looking like a rabble. Even The Australian and Andrew Bolt seem worried about what might happen next!

PBS Co-payment increases seem to have been abandoned and the Medicare Co-Payment is presently in total limbo - I still have no idea what is happening with it. AMA worried the bulk billing incentives might be at risk. Very bad news if true.

General.

EVERY GP Super Clinic in the country, including one in Mackay, faces extra financial scrutiny through a tender for an independent audit that could lead to some clinic closures.

The 61 clinics proposed and already operating under the multi-billion program, which Health Minister Peter Dutton has previously labelled a "waste of money", will be reviewed under a tender sought for independent advice by the Health Department.

It comes as the Department also prepares to give Mr Dutton the final report of an over-arching review of the GP Super Clinics Program next month, which has already resulted in three clinics closing.

Chief political correspondent

Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott are hoping a re-alignment of crossbench numbers and a worsening revenue picture might lead to a more cooperative parliament entering the final sitting fortnight of 2014. As the Treasurer prepares to unveil his crucial Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook snapshot of the budget and economy in mid-December, the government is struggling with very poor public support, and a record of legislative failure on key aspects of its budget plan.

The Abbott government has entered its final parliamentary sitting fortnight of the year hoping a re-alignment in the Senate and a worsening revenue picture might lead to a late breakthrough in the deadlocked legislature.

But hope is not being confused with belief despite billions of dollars of budget savings being stalled amid pale revenue from soft economic growth, weak company tax and capital gains receipts, and tumbling iron ore prices.

Health and Indigenous Affairs Correspondent

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has denied he has broken a pledge not to cut funding to the ABC and SBS, telling Parliament his government had "fundamentally kept faith with the Australian people".

The comments were Mr Abbott's first on budget changes to the ABC since a $254 million reduction was announced by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week.

In question time on Monday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked Mr Abbott about comments he made in an interview on SBS TV on the night before last year's election, in which he vowed there would be "no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS." The Opposition Leader moved a censure motion against Mr Abbott, saying the Prime Minister had broken his promise.

Chief political correspondent

Tony Abbott has asked nervous government MPs to maintain internal discipline in the face of the ABC funding controversy and bad polling, reassuring them he will knock "one or two barnacles off the ship" before Christmas.

The Prime Minister's comments touched off speculation that he is shaping to abandon one or more of his unpopular budget measures concluding there is no chance of passing them through the Senate and that the government has lost enough skin trying to do so until now.

But unity was already under strain on Tuesday with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull admitting the 4.9 per cent so-called "efficiency dividend" being extracted from the ABC funding envelope, constituted a cut, and another MP, Western Sydney Liberal Craig Laundy, calling on the Prime Minister to dispense with "verbal gymnastics" on the matter.

Western world’s first gene therapy drug will cost nearly $1.4m per patient

Thursday 27 November 2014 18.17 AEST

The western world’s first gene therapy drug is set to go on sale in Germany with a €1.1m ($1.4m) price tag, a new record for a medicine to treat a rare disease.

The sky-high cost of Glybera, from Dutch biotech firm UniQure and its unlisted Italian marketing partner Chiesi, shows how single curative therapies to fix faulty genes may upend the conventional pharmaceutical business model.

After a quarter century of experiments and several setbacks, gene therapy is finally throwing a life-line to patients by inserting corrective genes into malfunctioning cells – but paying for it poses a challenge.

The Sydney Morning Herald's Economics Editor

One of Tony Abbott's first acts on becoming Prime Minister was to sack the secretary to the Treasury, Dr Martin Parkinson. Parkinson's crime was to believe, as did the government he had been serving, that we need to take effective action against climate change.

Abbott also sacked Parkinson's obvious successor at Treasury, Blair Comley, for the same crime. It was a disgraceful, vindictive way to treat loyal and proficient public servants.

But Parko's departure from Treasury was delayed, first so he could help the new government prepare its first budget and then because his experience was sorely needed to help Abbott and Joe Hockey prepare to chair the G20 meeting this month.

But the time for his departure has finally arrived and this week he gave one of the last of many speeches during his distinguished career.

National security correspondent

The Abbott government's $7 Medicare co-payment appears to be on hold, with crossbench senators saying they've had no recent discussions with the government about the controversial budget measure.

With Parliament starting its final sitting fortnight of the year on Monday, the government is under pressure to snatch a legislative victory before Christmas, with its higher education reforms tipped to be the likeliest contender.

Cabinet will meet on Monday to discuss the year ahead. But the Abbott government faces perhaps even greater headaches getting legislation through the Upper House with Senator Jacqui Lambie expected to announce she will split from the Palmer United Party.

The federal government still wants the Senate to vote to impose a $7 charge for GP consultations despite speculation it would try to bypass a hostile Parliament through regulation.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann ruled out the regulation route, which doesn’t require a parliamentary majority and which the government has tried to use to raise fuel taxes and water-down financial advice laws.

“We are of course focused to deliver the budget measure that was announced in the budget in May and that requires legislation and that legislation is due to come into effect on 1 July 2015, so we have a bit of time to work our way through that,” Senator Cormann told the ABC.

Chief political correspondent

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has privately conceded defeat on his controversial budget proposal to introduce a new $7 co-payment on bulk-billed GP visits and will formally shelve the policy before the end of the year.

The decision is a recognition of the reality that it had no chance of progressing through a hostile Senate in the face of trenchant opposition from Labor, the Greens, and a majority of the crossbench.

Key points

Medicare proposal needs a plan B if it original concept isn’t implemented, says architect of scheme.

Higher education cuts will also feature in government deliberations before it rises.

The architect of the proposed $7 Medicare charge has castigated the government for jettisoning the policy without even putting it to the Senate.

After The Australian Financial Review reported the $3.6 billion GP co-payment was set to be dumped because of the a lack of Senate support, Terry Barnes, a former adviser to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, expressed his disappointment on social media.

THE Abbott government will do “whatever it takes” to impose a price signal on doctors’ visits, Health Minister Peter Dutton said, amid plans to use regulations to overcome a Senate veto of its $7 GP co-payment.

With only five parliamentary sitting days left this year and amid confusion last night over the fate of the controversial reform, Mr Dutton this morning declared a price signal was needed to make Medicare sustainable or else the universal healthcare scheme would “collapse under its own weight”.

The Australian this morning revealed the Coalition has decided on a regulatory approach to rescue the co-payment in the face of a splintering of alliances in the upper house that made it impos­sible to legislate the key budget measure before the July 1 start date.

Mark Kenny and Lisa Cox

Treasurer Joe Hockey has added to the confusion surrounding the federal government's proposed $7 GP fee declaring it remains alive even after the Prime Minister's office had briefed several journalists at different media organisations that the policy was to be shelved.

Mr Hockey said the government still intended to take its co-payment to the Parliament as Liberal senator Ian Macdonald threatened to cross the floor and vote against the fee if it was introduced.

The Treasurer's intervention as the most senior economic minister in the government has put him at odds with the Prime Minister's office because he is suggesting the government's policy hasn't changed - and that it still hopes to get it through the Parliament.

HEALTH Minister Peter Dutton has flip flopped for a fourth time on the $7 GP fee as government ministers are divided over the fee, a government backbencher plans to vote against it and the government’s policy crumbles into disarray.

Last night, after News Corp Australia revealed pensioners, children and those in the bush would pay more to see a doctor if he bypassed the Senate and introduced a GP charge by regulation the minister backtracked on earlier plans to do this.

Last month Mr Dutton refused to rule out using regulation to cut the Medicare rebate by $5 to impose the GP fee, on Tuesday he ruled out doing it by regulation, yesterday he said “we will look at every option that is available”.

Treasurer Joe Hockey will fight a ­proposal to shelve the Medicare ­co-payment as it emerged he was among several members of cabinet unaware of the move.

Despite the decision to shelve the unpopular $3.6 billion budget measure as part of Tony Abbott’s strategy to rid his government of “barnacles” and start next year afresh, Mr Hockey vowed to press ahead with the policy.

“Our policy stands. We intend to take it to the Parliament,” the Treasurer said. “It is not a barnacle. It is a policy that is about trying to fix some of the challenges associated with the mess that was left to us by the previous government.”

National political reporter

Hundreds of thousands of passengers arriving from overseas are filling out new Ebola screening forms that no one is collecting, despite the Coalition's pledge to cut red tape if elected.

The travel history cards are part of new measures announced earlier this month to combat Ebola. Passengers are required to complete it along with the regular incoming passenger card and hand them in at customs.

But if travellers use the smart gate system, the forms are not collected and there are no signs or verbal instructions telling passengers why their forms have not been collected, Fairfax Media has learnt.

UNCERTAINTY surrounds the Abbott government’s $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund as a new approach to the contentious $7 GP co-payment is considered.

The government is sticking to its goal of raising $3.5 billion from new fees on visits to the doctor — which will help fund the MRFF — after days of confusion over its plans.

Brendan Crabb, former president of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes and a member of the MRFF action group, is optimistic the fund will pass the Senate but said there was now some doubt.

The creators of two of Australia’s biggest medical research success stories are urging the government to put a promised $20 billion fund for their sector above politics, as dramas over the future of the GP co-payment continue.

The chief executive of bionic ear company Cochlear and the chief ­scientific officer at CSL, maker of the Gardasil vaccine, have described the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) as a “must-have” for Australia.

“Find a way. Find a way to fund this nation-changing initiative. This is something that will have a benefit to the country and will be a legacy to the elected officials in Parliament way beyond their terms,” said Andrew Cuthbertson of CSL. “We shouldn’t let relatively trivial debates get in the way of a truly visionary and important long-term idea.”

Pharmacy Related Articles.

The Federal Government cannot guarantee that it will no longer look for savings from the community pharmacy sector, the Prime Minister says.

Addressing the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s annual parliamentary dinner, Prime Minister Tony Abbott (pictured_ said the government supported the introduction of more services to community pharmacy, but could not rule out future cuts to the profession.

“I cannot stand up and say that the Government will no longer be looking for savings… but we want whatever we do to be helpful to patients and providing more services, not less services, to the people of Australia,” Mr Abbott told the audience.

Kate Hagan

Labor leader Daniel Andrews chose the "sandbelt" suburb of Mordialloc to announce his plans to open 20 "super pharmacies" where a nurse would be available at night to provide advice and care.
Mr Andrews said Labor would provide $28.7 million over four years for the program, which he said would take pressure off overcrowded hospital
emergency departments.
He said nurses would be available between 6pm and 10pm to provide advice on symptoms and could offer services such as wound care, blood pressure checks and immunisation.

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Comment:

I also have to say reading all the articles I still have no idea what is actually going to happen with the Budget at the end of the day. Maybe the next few weeks of parliament will clarify things this time but I doubt it. The Reps are back, along with the Senate. Both rise until the new year on Dec 4, 2014 until February!

As pointed out on Insiders last week - if the Budget is not sorted in the next week or so - (i.e. by the time you read this) then the next chance is in February, 2015 - and after MYEFO - and then we are into the next Budget!